Northern Islands Mayor Valentino Taisacan, standing 3rd left, Public Lands Advisory Board nominee Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong, Connie Togawa, 17th Council Chairwoman Marian DLG Tudela, Vice Chairwoman Antonia M. Tudela, Secretary Carmen C. Pangelinan, former Northern Islands Mayor Vicente Santos, Mayor Taisacan’s staff Paul Santos, Mario Santos, John Santos, former Mayor Vicente Santos, and Lorna Iginoef.
(SNIMC) — 17th Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council Vice Chairwoman Antonia Manibusan Tudela has asked Department of Public Lands Secretary Teresita Santos to immediately release pending quit claim deeds, without further delay or dilatory excuse, on any and all applications that have been filed for over two decades by bona fide residents of the Northern Islands or Gani who worked the land and fished the surrounding waters of Gani, their statutory claim to village homestead deeds, including their statutory claim to agricultural waiver homestead pursuant to Public Law 1-42 as amended and Public Law 2-13, among applicable provisions of law.
Tudela introduced council resolution 17SNIMC05 this month following an advice and consent hearing conducted by the council at the Chalan Kanoa Leadership Kiosku Courtyard on Northern Islands Mayor Valentino Taisacan’s nomination of Mr. Kodep Ogumoro-Uludong to the Public Lands Advisory Board.
The municipal council is established by Article VI of the CNMI Constitution, and is expressly granted advice and consent authority by Public Land 15-2 on mayoral nominees to the advisory board.
In its advice and consent recommendation report, the council’s committee on government appointments stated that Ogumoro-Uludong possesses the requisite qualifications, leadership skills and the integrity to perform strict fiduciary care as member of the Public Lands Advisory Board under the secretary of the Department of Public Lands as a representative of the people of Gani/Northern Islands in the Third Senatorial District.
Tudela stated that it has been five decades since the existence of a homestead program in the Northern Marianas, and the residency requirement for Gani Island residents has long been established by families who have inhabited the chain of islands even before the Japanese occupation.
Tudela stated that the residents of the Northern islands have long been represented by Saipan’s elected officials in Precincts 3 and 4.
She said “the native residents have long been displaced and dislocated not by choice, but by government edict, yet these residents have not lost their sense of place and identity and their spiritual and physical connection to their ancestral lands in the Northern Islands or Gani.”
Municipal Council Resolution 17SNIMC05 expresses sympathy to the plight of Gani residents and join all their former mayors including the present mayor in unity by urging real action on the part of Secretary of Public Lands Teresita A. Santos to once and for all allow the permanent re-settlement of Gani residents so they can return to their ancestral homeland without more delay by immediately issuing quitclaim deeds to any and all pending applications for over two decades filed by bona fide residents of the Northern Islands.
